Also this issue: Blast Off Rocket from the Tombs relaunches. -Sam Adams Cash Back Rosanne Cash writes the Rules and rediscovers her voice. -Nicole Pensiero Blistered in the Sun Unwrapping the Summer Package Tour -Jesse Delaney Kim Richey -Sam Adams Creekside Jamboree -Sean O’Neal Ssion -A.D. Amorosi Tim Berne's Big Satan -Kyle Parker Amy Rigby -Sam Adams

June 5-11, 2003

hearhere

There are heroes in the seaweed

by Patrick Rapa

Old is the New New Listening to the soft-voiced Denison Witmer's acoustic folk-soul over the last few years, you could tell something was different about the man. He's a rock, an island, a singer/songwriter with such classic sensibilities, you'd think he hasn't turned on his radio in decades. Giving credence to the theory that Witmer was born too late is his latest CD, Recovered (Fugitive), wherein our hero takes on his favorite acoustic songs from the '70s. And it's all disco! Just kidding. With sincerity and respect, he takes on the likes of Big Star ("Nightime"), Gram Parsons ("Brass Buttons"), Carole King ("So Far Away") and Jackson Browne ("Farther On" and "These Days"). Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" -- a captivating and mysterious song to begin with -- is particularly mesmerizing through Witmer's eyes, with cymbals rushing and trumpets hovering in the shadows. The album isn't officially ready to be released, but some burned copies will be available at his Fire gig. Fri., June 6, 9 p.m., $7, with Kimone and Ampline, The Fire, 412 W. Girard Ave., 267-671-9298.

Game On

Where were you guys? I went down to Liberty Lands on Saturday for the flea market/concert/park benefit and I was all alone. Either the show got rained out or everybody got hit with a brick on the way there. Oh well, the swings were wet but I had them all to myself. Let’s all give it another shot this Saturday. The Northern Liberties Music Festival’s plan-B lineup is almost the same. (Only Wayward Wind and Asteroid No. 4 can’t make the rain date; replacements were still being hunted at press time.) Co-organizer Ed Farnsworth is again wondering who’ll stop the rain. "If I hear another Seattle joke I think I might have to take up heroin, for Christ’s sake." Sat., June 7, 2 p.m., free, with The Espers, Lara MacCallum, Kenn Kweder, Mazarin, Mike Simons, Helen Back & the Str8 Razors and The Northern Liberties Dance Band, Liberty Lands park, Third Street, between Poplar and Wildey, 215-627-6562.

OK, Computer

It was kind of surprising to see the very electronics-centric Method and Result on the bill for one of those acoustic-minded Sunday Indie Sunday shows at The Point. Asked how the duo will adapt, singer/keyboardist/guitarist Megan Wendell says the laptops won’t be forsaken entirely, but points out that most of M+R’s songs start out on guitar and piano, so it won’t be too hard to strip ’em down.

"We have a few songs that we haven't arranged with electronics yet too, so we have a chance to debut a song or two with just guitar and upright bass," she says. "We tend to work well under pressure, so who knows what we'll end up with on Sunday." Sun., June 8, 7:30 p.m., $5, with The Method and Result, Val Emmich and Elevator Parade, The Point, 880 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr, 610-527-0988.

Not OK, Computer

If the karma police are real at all, Radiohead should expect to get pulled over. Local singer/songwriter Mary Bichner, who writes spectacularly dark and orchestral keyboard rock songs, spends at least some of her spare time using her perfect-pitch skills to transcribe her favorite band’s songs into sheet music. Her "Radiohead for the Pianoforte" project (featured on her site, www.littlerowboat.net) is a dedicated and dazzling collection of handwritten musical scores.

Or it was. The 20-year-old Bichner just got a letter from Warner/Chappell, Radiohead’s publishing company, saying she was cutting in on the money the band makes from putting out songbooks. So she had to take the "Pianoforte" pages off the site.

Besides the debatable position that Thom Yorke and co. should not be treating their most loyal fans like that (or letting their label do it for them), it should be noted that hardly any of Bichner’s transcriptions are actually available elsewhere. Unlike most of the Radiohead piano books out there, she takes on B-sides and live tracks.

After all this, though, Bichner’s still quite enamored with the band and is willing to kill just about anyone to get into the Radiohead Y100 Sonic Sessions appearance this summer. If the band wishes to return any sense of order to the cosmos, and unbreak the heart of their biggest fan, they will get her into that show. Better yet, they should hire her to write up their songbooks.